Cooltown Studios

Rightsizing, not downsizing, is what the next gen is about

2012-02-06T08:00:41Z

While ‘one size fits all’ may have been the mass production model of the industrial revolution, it’s encouraging to know that the model driving the creative, information, knowledge economy of the present is based on providing what people truly want. That ‘right size’ we’re looking for is finally being provided as an option.

Rightsizing Living
Regular readers know this has been well covered in this blog, that the next gen wants smaller homes, that the housing crisis needed a correction as housing sizes got out of control. Single-family home sizes are dropping for the first time. According to a 2011 report, What’s Next? Real Estate in the New Economy, by a leading real estate organization, the Urban Land Institute (ULI), Gen Y (in their teens and early thirties) prefers smaller homes in favor of an easier commute and better lifestyle. Perhaps this will lead to ‘people rightsizing’ in a country where two-thirds of the population is overweight.

Rightsizing Commuting
As stated above, people are rightsizing their commute, looking to live closer to work and creating new, less expensive options for getting there. As stated in a new study by Zipcar, more Gen Yers are selling their cars or never buying one in the first place, opting for car sharing when they absolutely need one. The same is true even for bicycles with the rise of bike sharing.

Rightsizing Working
Many major companies will decentralize and value smaller office locations in 24-hour urban centers to enable innovation by being closer to where the creative, next gen populations are migrating to. For example, Google has invested in one of the largest buildings in downtown Manhattan, a beaux arts building in central Paris, a warehouse in downtown Pittsburgh, and a new building in downtown Boulder, Colorado… a far cry from the office parks of the 20th century. The aforementioned ULI report also states that office tenants will decrease space per employee, transforming into meeting places more than work places, with an emphasis on open configurations that foster interaction.

In a March 17, 2011 news article, “Zappos CEO envisions a new community downtown“, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh shows he’s fully invested in rightsizing to benefit his employees, “Hsieh is exploring building 500 to 1,000 units of 100-square-foot spaces rented for $100 a month - enough room for a bed and a closet, while bathroom facilities would be shared. Maybe a bar or lounge would be attached to the building and renters would crash there whenever they wanted. “Maybe call it the Crash Pad,” he said. Renters would be screened to keep it from becoming a homeless or hooker option, he said.“

Rightsizing towns?
While you may be thinking that rightsizing is only relevant to urban areas and big cities, it isn’t. Even small towns are rightsizing their footprints as we evolve from sprawl to what are being referred to as ‘micropolitans’; small towns with compact downtowns. This is especially important given that 51% of Americans indicated that they would prefer to live in either a small town (30%) or rural area (21%). For a more detailed and contemporary definition of ‘micropolitan’, check out the Micropolitan Manifesto, a primer for author Katie McCaskey’s upcoming book, Urban Escapee: “Micropolitan: a place anchored with a human-scaled, walkable downtown in the smallest cities possible, that each have the potential to be simultaneously “micro” and “cosmopolitan”’.

So, what’s next? Now’s it’s time to decide what rightsizing means to you in your community, and if you’re committed to doing something about it, it’s on to organizing a group of like-minded people to crowdsource that vision into reality. That’s the purpose behind this site.

Hilo, HI: First crowdsourced placemaking municipality

2012-01-12T00:05:05Z

Crowdsourced placemaking had been a private sector sponsored success in Bristol, CT, but what about coming from the public sector?

To many, public sector sponsored crowdsourced placemaking sounded rather impossible, with such arguments as:

- A municipality doesn’t do placemaking, or implementation, the private sector does. It’s the actual physical implementation of building real places that sets crowdsourced placemaking apart from just crowdsourcing.
- The city government is obligated to listen to everyone, which means the ‘good’ will be countered with the ‘bad’ and the status quo will result..
- There’s just too much bureaucracy in government for them to sign off on something like crowdsourcing.

Well, the City of Hilo, Hawaii, with a population of around 50,000, launched a formal crowdsourced placemaking program in November, 2011 anyway, at ourdowntownhilo.com. Public support so far has been very positive. Here’s how they addressed the aforementioned concerns:

- Sponsored by the city planning department, the staff understands that it’s the private sector that does the actual placemaking when it comes to buildings, but that the public sector sets the rules when it comes to public places, which are often critical to the success of buildings. In addition, ideas that reach a certain level of popularity that are private sector oriented, such as a coffeehouse or a mixed-use building, are then connected to a private sector entity that’s willing to work with the crowd, given the benefit of having a market already assembled for them.
- The City of Hilo already went through an extensive visioning process to create a plan on how to essentially be more triple-bottom-line (economically, socially, environmentally) sustainable and prosperous by 2025. So it wasn’t difficult to require that all ideas be triple bottom line to comply with the plan.
- Why did the City of Hilo actually make the leap ahead of everyone else in what may very well be the standard way we plan and develop places in the future? It takes one person willing to be a pioneer, willing to take a risk, in a position of enough authority to make it happen, and that person was city planner Susan Gagorik.

‘Popularise’ looks to crowdsource storefront businesses

2011-12-21T17:57:46Z

The sons of a big-time developer in Washington DC learned enough about the real estate industry to the point they feel it’s ‘broken’. So, rather than continue the ‘Big Head’ oriented path of the real estate industry, the chose to forge a new one via the ‘Long Tail’. That is, they’re looking to crowdsource what gets built, starting with ground-floor businesses in Washington DC.

From their website: “Today, neighborhood development is dominated by large institutional companies that use Wall Street money to finance their projects. These companies typically know nothing about the neighborhoods in which they’re developing. The decision-makers are out of touch with the realities of what residents like you want, need, and use. For example, which would you rather see in your neighborhood? A great local farm-to-table restaurant…or another cookie-cutter national chain?“ See “How local indies can compete with national chains”.

So, if you live in DC, you can register on their newly launched Popularise site and vote for the business ideas that you support. The site is currently featuring two locations in up-and-coming neighborhoods. You can vote for businesses that the developers have already negotiated with, suggest your own, or vote on ones that others have suggested. How are decisions ultimately made? That answer looks promising, as their complementary crowdfunding site at fundrise.com will soon allow people to actually invest in the businesses they feel should locate in their neighborhood.

Btw, you’re going to hear a lot about crowdfunding real estate in the next few years. Why? Check out this diagram...

Locavesting, crowdfunding local businesses on the rise

2011-11-07T11:58:54Z

We’re reaching the tipping point where our investment and tax dollars are going to start benefitting our local economies rather than private investors, with the ‘Long Tail‘ leading the way. Crowdfunding, a natural extension of crowdsourcing, emerges from the Long Tail and is coming to small businesses. It’s about time!

Cities are wising up in prioritize investing in independent businesses districts over chains. According to a BusinessWeek article, subsidies for chains are not effective. Big box chain retailers are known to have been costing tax payers anywhere between $1.4 to $7.2 million to finance their development. A recent economic study shows that cities and counties in the St. Louis region diverted more than $5.8 billion in public tax dollars to finance private development, more than 80% supporting the construction of new chain stores and shopping centers, yet resulting in virtually no economic growth… but with 600 small retailers closing.

You know something’s brewing when even the big fish are investing in the little ones. Fortune 500s like American Express and Google, as well as Facebook and Twitter are supporting indie businesses via Small Business Saturday on November 27. American Express even sponsored the “first national, longitudinal study of market share trends for independent businesses”, reporting that independent businesses draw nearly half of all retail shopping business and 64% of eating and drinking business. See chart above from the study. Amex also publishes myriad articles on new small business trends, like this article on locavesting.

On the indie side of national promotions, at long last there’s a professional-looking campaign supporting local retail businesses at Shift Your Shopping.

Meanwhile, there’s a buzz in the indie retail industry around articles like “How Yelp is Killing Chain Businesses”, in the Washington Post. The study says a one-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5-9% increase in revenue for independent restaurants, none for chains, which also adds that national chains have declined in market share at the same time.

So, the question then becomes, what is the underlying reason behind this groundbreaking shift? It’s all about the rise of the ‘Long Tail’, explained in the previous entry, “‘Big Head’ and ‘Long Tail’ both key to placemaking”, simultaneously being embraced by the ‘Big Head’ such as city governments and the aforementioned corporations.

Finally, what will really help this movement take off? Crowdfunding. Check out the new book, “Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It” from Amy Cortese, which covers this topic comprehensively. For more immediate gratification, read her NY Times op-ed, “Pennies From Many”: “For a glimpse of what is possible, look at Britain, where securities laws are helpful to crowdfunding and several start-ups are vying to be the Facebook of finance. The year-old Funding Circle, a business-lending site based in London, raises more than $2.3 million each month for small businesses from individuals who can invest as little as $30 and earn an average yield of roughly 7.3% after fees. Those are loans; two other start-ups are applying the model to equity shares in small companies… The Securities and Exchange Commission has been considering proposals to ease restrictions on crowdfunding. One petition, prepared in 2010 by the Sustainable Economies Law Center and, fittingly, paid for by a grass-roots crowdfunding effort, asks the S.E.C. to permit entrepreneurs to raise up to $100 per individual and an aggregate of up to $100,000 without requiring expensive registration and disclosure. President Obama, as part of his jobs act, advocates an exemption for sums totaling up to $1 million. Representative Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina, has drafted legislation that would allow companies to obtain up to $5 million from individuals through crowdfunded ventures, with a cap of $10,000 per investor, or 10% of their annual incomes, whichever is smaller.“

Crowdfunding small businesses is already taking off. The leading crowdfunding entity, Kickstarter, surpassed $100 million in pledges from over 1 million backers for over 23,000 projects in just two and a half years. Most of the pledges were in the $11-25 range, and 400,000 of those backers came in the last five months alone. Crowdfunding was frequently mentioned at the CityWorks(X)po conference launching the Small Cities Movement, and the first crowdsourced business (“Bare Bones opens to rave reviews, packed house”, see October 27, 2011 grand opening photo above) in a crowdsourced downtown just began crowdfunding.

We may not have hit the local independent business tipping point just yet as chains still dominate our landscape. But as you can see in the graphs below, lead by independent business districts and as the economy recovers, we’re about to.

‘Big Head’ and ‘Long Tail’ both key to placemaking

2011-10-31T13:33:56Z

As we’re witnessing in communities from the Middle East to Wall Street, people are taking it upon themselves to organize and effect lasting change on behalf of the triple bottom line (being economically, socially and environmentally beneficial). These groups aren’t advocating having swarms of people as a better structure for governance, they’re just tired of what’s known in business as the ‘Big Head‘ (represented by the red in the graph above) having too much control, such as in placemaking.

Five years ago we posted a series on the rise of the ‘Long Tail’, which is essentially, ‘everyone else’ (represented by the yellow in the graph above). It’s safe to say that the Long Tail, aided by the community-building efficiencies of the Internet, is hitting the tipping point of being a positive force for change.

However, it’s not about the Big Head vs the Long Tail. If a conference in Roanoke, Virginia in October 2011, kicking off the Small Cities Movement has anything to say about it, it’s that the ‘Big Head’ and ‘Long Tail’ need to work together, collaborate, and most importantly, learn to like and respect one another. Case in point: Ed Walker. He’s a developer, and he’s clearly in the Big Head, developing over 200 units of attainably-priced housing in downtown Roanoke where there were none before. However, unexpectedly, the Long Tail of artists, creatives, entrepreneurs and everyday folk in Roanoke not only respect him, they see him as a friend. The camaraderie and talent at the conference was extraordinary, and Ed was the one who initiated the plan: Have the CityWorks(X)po launch a Small Cities Movement.

It’s the kind of trusting Big Head-Long Tail partnership and culture that allowed the Envision Roanoke crowdsourced placemaking website to go from “Hey, why don’t we develop a website to capture people’s ideas at the conference…“ to “We’d like to announce that envisionroanoke.com is now up and running…“ in five hours. That’s not a technical feat, that’s a community culture feat.

Be sure to return here on Monday, November 7 for one of our favorite entries yet on how the Big Head and Long Tail are creating a tipping point for supporting local independent business districts…

The crowdsourced placemaking grant list

2011-10-14T12:37:22Z

Demand sparks supply, so let’s get a list of cities that want to see crowdsourced placemaking in their city, town and/or neighborhood. Then we’ll look into how we can secure grants for them, whether it’s through a new national/international nonprofit or through a local nonprofit. See this NY Times story on Bristol, CT,“You ‘Like’ It, They Build It” for an example of results, which should be a compelling story for potential funders for programs initiated by the local community.

What would the grant be for?

1. Establish a crowdsourced placemaking program to identify a feasible market for revitalizing a downtown as a community (aka the “crowd”). See Bristol Rising as an example of one that’s grown to 1200 people in a year.
2. Help the crowd identify key public amenities and businesses via crowdsourced placemaking platform that raise the benchmark for placemaking. See the piazza in Bristol as an example.
3. Work with the crowd to design/plan these public spaces, integrating the retail, into investable destinations.
4. Secure a developer/investment team/crowdfund to implement those places.

A crowdsourced placemaking community candidate must have a champion, that is, a person willing to represent their community, at least until they’re willing to pass the torch to someone else. Here’s a running list - the larger the list, the more compelling it will be to potential funders that there is indeed a demand:

Sandy Maxey, Asheville, North Carolina
Ferndale, Michigan
Bike Walk Logan Square, Logan Square, Chicago
Susan Gagorik, Our Downtown Hilo, Hilo, Hawaii
Nate Rudy, Gardiner, Maine
Ed Walker, CityWorks, Roanoke, Virginia

Photo by chrisanter.

Pop-up placemaking and next gen urban neighborhoods

2011-09-01T21:13:36Z

Trendwatching.com reports that with 180,000 people moving into cities daily, a rising creative urban population they refer to as Citysumers are defining a new generation that’s more demanding, open-minded, connected, spontaneous and more try-out-prone than ever. What that means is if there ever was a time to experiment with forward-thinking placemaking, the time is now.

The current manifestation of that mentality is with ‘pop-up’ placemaking. It allow cities to try out innovative placemaking without much if any taxpayer commitment. What happens more often than not, however, is that the aforementioned citysumers see it as an opportunity to make it permanent. From Cities rethink urban spaces with ‘pop-up’ projects:

- Pop-up placemaking took off in Copenhagen in the 1950s when the City’s closing of its main downtown Strøget Street to car traffic turned public opposition into such a well-received experience, what was supposed to be temporary over the Christmas holiday has been permanent ever since.
- In 2009 New York City closed Times Square to cars temporarily and found that business revenue increased 71%, injuries to motorists and passengers dropped 63% and northbound west midtown trips were actually 17% faster. It’s been closed permanently ever since.
- Vancouver’s VIVA program began a roving street closing program in 2009 to test pedestrian-only places in neighborhoods throughout the city (see photo above).
- Bristol, Connecticut hosted a pop-up piazza festival in August, 2011 to test out its upcoming piazza on its future site, presently within a giant parking lot. Expecting 1500 people, it attracted upwards of ten times that many.

Taking it beyond the pop-up, which cities are popping up at the forefront of making such experimental innovation and placemaking permanent? Economist Richard Florida, author of the Creative Class series of books, outlined his top ten:

- H Street Corridor NE, Washington: Once a DC mecca, this economically challenged neighborhood is enjoying a renaissance with a collection of funky restaurants and a grand streetscaping in preparation for a trolley line.
- Wynwood and Design District, Miami: Galleries, boutiques, art, fashion and chefs meet cheap rent in converted low-rise warehouses, how can you go wrong?
- Fremont District, Las Vegas: Finally, a neighborhood in Vegas for the creatives.
- Lawrenceville, Pittsburgh: Working class, professionals, artists, students, a design district, art festivals, over 50 locally owned eateries and ethnic restaurants.
- Chelsea, New York: Rehabbed warehouses, art galleries, High Line park, authentic unique ethnic restaurants, delis and boutiques sans chains.
- Wicker Park and Bucktown, Chicago: Historic Victorian architecture, trendy restaurants, bars, coffee shops, galleries and boutiques.
- South Lake Union, Seattle: Paul Allen’s investment and vision, tech start-ups, new sustainable buildings and restaurants, summer block parties, outdoor movie screenings, maybe a bit too corporate for some.
- Queen West, Toronto: Music venues, restaurants, bars and shops, artists and designers.
- West 7th, Fort Worth, Texas: New restaurants, specialty retailers, design stores, attracting students, empty-nesters and young families.
- Corktown, Detroit: A favorite city of young creatives because of its ground-up remaking, the city’s oldest neighborhood is home to artists, musicians and professionals at attainable prices.

Clockwise from top left: Granville Street, Vancouver; South Lake Union, Seattle; Corktown, Detroit; West 7th, Fort Worth, Texas.

Revitalizing a struggling downtown: Crowdsource it… or not

2011-08-05T13:05:47Z

With the Village of Hempstead, Long Island, New York, when a development team implemented crowdsourcing into the development process in 2011, the Village approved it unanimously. Not so when it wasn’t part of the process in 2007, which resulted in rejection.

In 2007, a development company presented the Village of Hempstead residents (pop. 53K), struggling economically at a medium income half of the immediate area, with 5200 construction jobs, 1200 permanent jobs and $35 million a year in new tax revenue. It was rejected by the residents (NY Times article). Why?

Of the 2500 condominiums and 600,000 s.f. of stores planned, too many were high-end condos priced for people who didn’t live in the village, national chains were supported over local businesses, and buildings were proposed at 16-stories (most every building was no more than four stories, mostly one and two), none of which appealed to the residents. Not surprisingly, the project was shelved.

Fast forward to 2011. The same development company partners with a development firm nuanced in the practice of crowdsourcing, specifically, crowdsourced placemaking, committing that process to the triple bottom line of being economically, socially and environmentally beneficial. See “Village Downtown Gets Revised Plan in Hempstead” (pdf) in the Wall Street Journal, which mentions an upcoming August 2011 Village of Hempstead vote to approve the project, which has since passed unanimously.

What has been the focus of the local crowd through the first four monthly meetings? Jobs. New housing that people can actually afford. Public amenities and businesses that people actually want and support the local economy. Fewer high-end condos, and more “affordable by design” units that are smaller with simpler finishes and unbundled parking (saving another $20,000 per unit). Less chains and more support for existing local businesses and entrepreneurs. A focus on social public spaces like a central plaza and market square. Most of all, a sense of ownership in what’s going on.

Here’s the difference: The development company is committed to investing in what the crowd wants.

What is triple-bottom-line real estate development?

2011-07-29T12:23:53Z

Many of us know that the triple bottom line means “people, planet and profit”, being economically, socially and environmentally beneficial. That is, expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance (Wikipedia).

So what does this mean for real estate development? What would triple bottom line real estate development look like? Keep in mind this is about the real estate development industry, not about the city or neighborhood as a whole, which is obviously more important, but a separate focus nonetheless.

Economic/Profit
- It’s financially viable to the real estate developers and investors. Many say that developers make too much money and some say they shouldn’t make any. That of course is unrealistic, as real estate development is a hugely risky industry (just witness the recent state of affairs) and it’s not like they’re dominating the Fortune 500. Really though, the real estate developers that sincerely care about and work with the local residents are often embraced as heroes, while the ones that don’t are seen as villains. Simple as that.

Environmental/Planet
- The development is LEED-ND certified and the buildings are LEED certified. The U.S. Green Building Council has established a reputable standard by which to make developers accountable when going green. It covers just about any kind of green consideration you can think of, from rainwater barrels to alternatives to car ownership.
- Housing and transportation options that reduce carbon footprints are available. As stated, the opportunity to live in smaller units (heating/cooling of buildings has the largest carbon footprint) and walk or bike (transportation is second) to destinations is the best one can do to be green.

Social/People
- The community is a meaningful partner in the development. This is what crowdsourced placemaking, and this site, is all about.
- Local business development is supported over chains. Chains really don’t need support as far as real estate development goes, they have their business model and investment resources already set. Why is this under “Social” rather than “Economical”? Because it’s a lot easier for developers to prioritize chains that are familiar and can pay higher rents. However, if developers put the time in to grow successful unique local businesses, property values rise as the locale becomes more of a desirable regional draw. See the “Economic Impact of Local Businesses vs Chains” for the best summary of evidence regarding how local businesses are better for the local economy as well.
- Construction jobs are sourced locally whenever feasible. Factors to consider are whether union labor accomplishes this or not, which can add significantly to housing prices that are trying to stay low, and whether or not local labor is willing to be trained on more energy-efficient construction like structural insulated panels ys stick frame, the former of which has higher costing materials, but with lower labor costs.
- Housing is provided at prices that the local residents can afford. This means a variety of housing types for a variety of incomes, and since most of the lower to medium incomes are underserved when it comes to new housing, it also means developing smaller, high-style-low-cost finished units without required parking spaces (saving another $20,000).
- Job-creating businesses are sufficiently attracted. This doesn’t mean stealing other cities’ companies, resulting in a zero-sum gain overall. It’s also not just about incubating startups, but investing in the gazelles, those companies that are carefully evaluated to have the best chances of growing. It also means there’s sufficient office space in the heart of the retail entertainment district, where the employees of these companies are often happiest, and thus more likely to stay and help grow the company. Of course, housing they can afford has the same effect.
- Placemaking is designed to emphasize quality of life. The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) Charter is one of the best set of placemaking principles around, with walkability at the heart of its values.
- Public places build a sense of community. The most popular in crowdsourced placemaking circles? Piazzas, central plazas, public markets, food halls. Project for Public Spaces is a nonprofit that knows more about developing successful public spaces than any other.
- Car-free lifestyles are an option. Typically, it’s not an option, where you must buy a parking space with your home, and key public amenities and businesses are not walkable, or even bikeable. Developments based on the CNU Charter are designed to be walkable for most everyone. Parking should be unbundled from the purchase of the home, and car sharing, bike sharing, a bike-friendly environment (lanes, parking) and proximity to transit are fundamental.

Why is the social/people component the largest by far? Perhaps it’s because social behavior is at the core of what we do financially and environmentally.

New “Crowdsourcing for Idiots” book features town

2011-07-14T11:30:59Z

There’s a plethora of books on crowdsourcing out there, but only one documents the crowdsourcing of a city’s entire downtown. In other words, it shows you how far crowdsourcing has come along, from T-shirts to now cities.

Below is the full excerpt from the book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Crowdsourcing by Aliza Sherman, published July 2011 (sure, we had something to do with it). Two days after the book was released, the NY Times published an article on the crowdsourced placemaking of the city’s downtown as well, You ‘Like’ It, They Build it.

Chapter 21: Organizing for Crowd Action

Bristol, Connecticut, Sources Ideas

The city of Bristol, Connecticut (pop. 61,000), crowdsourced ideas for a local site revitalization project. The city had a vacant 17-acre former shopping mall site. The developer, Renaissance Downtowns, turned to “crowdsourced placemaking” company Cooltown Beta Communities (cooltownbeta.com), which specializes in gathering “beta communities” to come together to help innovate community-oriented places.

For Renaissance Downtown’s Bristol redevelopment effort, Cooltown was brought in to help the developer crowdsource ideas to revitalize the site and to incorporate what the community actually wanted and needed. They were looking to create a sustainable, environmentally-friendly local destination: a town center.

Community members joined the crowd to help develop a future neighborhood that focused on the “triple bottom line” of “people, planet, profit.“ Cooltown used Ning as the online space for gathering their community and incorporated their proprietary online tool, Bubbly (bubblyapp.com), to create a visual idea-sharing mechanism that let community members submit and rate ideas. The project sites are Bristol Rising (bristolrising.com) and Bristol Rising Survey (bristolrisingsurvey.com).

Since fall of 2010, over 240 residents were participating in the project, submitting and voting on ideas. Ideas that receive a minimum number of votes will be assessed for financial feasibility, then potentially move on to inclusion in the project’s master plan. The project was still in progress in the spring of 2011.

‘Creating nature’ with an urban village in Seattle

2011-06-30T11:35:59Z

This is apparently Seattle’s first transit-oriented development (TOD). If it gets better than this with TODs so come, hold on to your seats, you’re in for a fun ride.

The starting point is a 9-acre parking lot (left of photo), pretty much your standard building block in many U.S. cities, though adjacent to a major bus transfer station with planned light rail access, which means walkable urban village development is a natural next step. However, one half of what makes this a model for the rest of country is that rather than develop right over the parking block, the public-private partnership between the public and private sectors “daylighted” a creek that was covered by the lot, which as close as you’re going to get in actually creating nature. Within one month after opening, native birds were observed at the project. The restored Thornton Creek also collects urban stormwater runoff from 680 acres.

The other half of what makes this a national model is what they did with the rest of the parking lot block (about twice the size of a typical Seattle block), replacing an exclusive hang out for cars with Thornton Place, a habitat for people and no thoroughfare for cars: 109 condos, 278 apartments (20% affordable), a 14-screen cinema, 50,000 sf of retail and a beautiful, vibrant plaza surrounded by restaurants (above). Maybe they’ll eventually enlarge the plaza by replacing the head-on parking spaces with outdoor dining area.

Notice in the aerial (lowest image below) that the development focuses on the plaza as the center of life, with the retail, housing, and even the creek open space organically wrapped around it, ignoring the rigid grid of auto-driven streets and parking lots surrounding it. The residents campaigned against efforts to allow thoroughfares of auto traffic through. Not only that, the developer also campaigned to the City and County to allow 350 of the 880 required parking spaces (underground) to be shared as transit parking, allowing a reduction of the total parking requirement to 200 below what city code normally requires. That’s a savings of $8 million ($40k a stall) that not only add zero value to the overall project, but probably would have added negative value (increased traffic congestion), thus making everything that much more affordable.

Also on the site is 143-units of senior housing known as Aljoya within a naturally-occurring retirement community (NORC) context, that is, a place to retire without feeling like you’re in a retirement community cut off from society.

Unburied creek. Buried parking. Vibrant urban plaza. No thoroughfares for cars. Should it be surprising the development company, Stellar Development, is Swedish, renowned for their sustainability movement?

Read about the development from a more authentic creatives point of view in Grist and HugeAssCity.

Universities finally building urban villages… on campus

2011-06-13T10:22:47Z

Most students at university campuses either don’t need to drive, don’t need to own cars. Yet the isolated dormitory, classroom and cafeteria zone form of development, similar to the isolated subdivision, office park and shopping mall model of suburban development, surprisingly hasn’t changed for decades. Until now. Finally.

Thanks to the forward thinkers at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, they not only invested $54 million into an open-to-the-public mixed-use destination urban village in the middle of campus, they centered it around the equivalent of a car-free piazza.

The 189,000 s.f. LEED-certified Global Village features 20,000 s.f. of retail space (with a restaurant, convenience store, copy center, post office, fitness center) and 12,000 s.f. of academic space surrounded by 414-bed apartment and suite style student housing.

What ties it all together is the central plaza, designed to promote outdoor activity and social interaction. A casual and formal outdoor restaurant and cafe fills outdoor seating for 200, while an outdoor living room/lounge with a fire pit and small performance area attracts crowds at all hours. During the winter, the outdoor lounge becomes a small skating rink.

What puts the “global” in Global Village? The complex hosts multi-cultural programs and the university’s study abroad group, and houses students participating in co-op programs in countries such as the UAE, Kosovo, and Croatia. Foreign students are also provided with a variety of amenities. The academic spaces also include an Entrepreneurial Center and a Prototype Lab space.

Open since September 2010, it’s been a hit with everyone…
“The plaza is a huge success. We had kids sitting outside deep into the fall, which, given our weather, is exceptional,“ James Watters, RIT senior vice president of finance and administration.
“The attractiveness of the new neighborhood is expected to give the university a competitive edge in recruiting, Urban Land Institute.
“The project shows that an exciting, sophisticated street scene and residential neighborhood can be created on a prestigious campus that hasn’t historically had this nearby. There’s a real hunger among faculty, staff, and students for close-to-campus neighborhoods with urban energy, and at most universities, no one has had those kinds of neighborhoods for over 50 years.“ Marco Esposito, SWA Group (urban design firm).

While the Global Village is located on a suburban campus, even better, you can bring a university urban village to a downtown. Ten years ago, the University of Washington in Tacoma, Washington redeveloped abandoned warehouses on eight blocks of the city’s blighted industrial waterfront into an urban village of classrooms, student housing and 6000 s.f. of commercial. Serving 3500 students with a goal of 10,000, the development has spurred a downtown revitalization. Ryan Petty, the city’s director of community and economic development, refers to the university’s location downtown as “the best decision the city has made in the past 30 years,“ resulting in “seeing a lot of new businesses locating downtown.“ Now it’s one of the liveliest districts in the city.

University of Washington in Tacoma (left), Global Village at the Rochester Institute of Technology (right)

Thanks to the ULI for the source of this post.

Gems of innovation in Fast Cities 2011

2011-05-31T20:33:20Z

Each year Fast Company magazine introduces their pick for Fast Cities City of the Year, and while that may be quite subjective, this year they also included an innovator/innovation in each state. Here are the ones most relevant to this urban living:

Places for working creatives
- Washington DC. Affinity Lab. Arguably the first coworking space in the U.S marketed as such., founded in 2001.
- Indiana, Indianapolis. The National Design District. Redevelopment of an old auto factory into a neighborhood-wide incubator and live-work spaces for those in the design industry.
- Michigan, Detroit. TechTown. TechTown, a tech incubator started in 2004 by Wayne State University hosts 220 firms in Detroit, home of the fastest-growing tech-job market in the U.S. over the past year.
- Tennessee, Knoxville. Knoxville Overground. The city’s first coworking space serving as a nonprofit to support social entrepreneurs.

Places for creatives to live
- Missouri, St. Louis. Schlafly Bottleworks. A microbrewery serving as a community hub, hosting live music, lectures, foodie gatherings, and Washington University classes.
- New Mexico, Albuquerque. Infill Solutions/Calott + Gifford Architecture. Award-winning city-revitalizing infill and brownfields projects.
- Rhode Island, Providence. AS220. A nonprofit studio space, artist housing, and café/bar doing what places for creatives do best, revitalizing a once-seedy area and raising property values.
- North Dakota, Fargo. Hotel Donaldson (pictured above). A hotel for creatives (each room was designed by an area artist), and “driven by a desire to create memorable experiences for guests by celebrating the community’s visual, culinary, literary and performing arts.
Texas, Houston. Project Row Houses. Invested in 40 artist homes and meeting space in a poor part of Houston.

Places for creatives to play
- Virginia, Norfolk. Art Everywhere. Uses empty Norfolk storefronts for a two-month-long art fair celebrating local creativity. Sounds like an ideal partner to use the Better Block Project as a crowdsourced placemaking kickoff.
- Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Milwaukee Public Market. The downtown Public Market anchors the Third Ward, Milwaukee’s rejuvenated creative district.

Innovative Transportation
- Hawaii, Kauai. GreenCar Hawaii. Car sharing for hotel guests.
- Minnesota, Minneapolis. Metro Transit Ride to Rewards. The nation’s first public-transit frequent-rider program.

Crowdsourcing
- Binghamton, New York. The Design Your Own Park Competition. Binghamton’s contest allows residents to plan renovations of vacant lots and neglected spaces, the first of which will be done in 2011.
- Connecticut, New Haven. SeeClickFix allows citizens to crowdsource the fixing of problems city officials may be overlooking.

Social change, environment
- Alaska, Anchorage. Seeds of Change teaches youth in the juvenile-justice system to create a social enterprise by growing and selling produce from community gardens.
- Utah, Salt Lake City. Clear the Air Challenge. Teams formed to telecommute and carpool, cut pollution, and illuminate bad habits and conservation possibilities, saving $735,000 in vehicle costs.
- West Virginia, Huntington. Huntington’s Kitchen, formerly Jamie’s Kitchen. Popularized by a reality series in 2009 to change the eating habits of “the unhealthiest town in the country”, the community kitchen is a catalyst for healthy living, sparking a new farmers’ market.

Photo of Hotel Donaldson, Fargo, North Dakota.

Crowdsourcing a ‘Better Block’ in Memphis

2011-05-23T09:00:53Z

Inspired by the Better Block Program in Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas that crowdsourced a weekend demonstration of what a downtown street should be like, Memphis hosted their own last November. Located on Broad Street, the event, “A New Face for Old Broad“, attracting 13,000 attendees.

Pat Brown, co-owner of T. Clifton Art Gallery on Broad, sums it up nicely, “It’s easier for any of us to envision what the future can be if you can see it, touch it and taste it as well. Instead of looking at a piece of paper, we want people to experience it.”

Some important community-involving elements:
- Temporary repainting of the street to include bike lanes, which still remain.
- Each of the four schools in the neighborhood designing and painting a crosswalk.
- Vacant commercial properties staging several pop-up businesses and six restaurants (currently located elsewhere in Memphis) to demonstrate possible permanent uses.
- Live music and children’s activities throughout the event.

The key to these demonstration events is to spur new investment. Some examples announced in May 2011 include:
- Design work for a major new bike path system.
- A significant new mural by French artist Guillaume Alby to beautify warehouses on the street.
- An overlay plan for future Broad business development to attract the kinds of businesses the neighborhood wants.
- Grant funding for artistic bike racks and trash cans.

The event was created via a partnership between Livable Memphis and the Historic Broad Avenue Arts District.

Learn to develop your own Better Block with the How to Build a Better Block guide.

Bristol crowdsources piazza into downtown plan

2011-05-12T16:57:12Z

People often ask, “How does crowdsourced placemaking work in the real world?“

This is best answered via real world examples, such as the piazza in Bristol, Connecticut (pop. 61,000) .

As you can see in the December 30, 2010 story, “Blending online and face-face crowdsourcing“, the Bristol survey was just launching, with “A plaza/piazza” garnering a mere 9 likes at the time. Master developer Renaissance Downtowns, which is partnering with the City of Bristol to develop a 17-acre former strip mall in the heart of downtown, agreed that if the Bristol crowd (aka Bristol Rising) would attract at least 200 likes for any idea, they would do a feasibility study for inclusion in the site’s downtown concept plan due on April 25, 2011.

The piazza entry exceeded 200 likes by March 15, and has been such a focal point of monthly meeting and online discussions that not only did Renaissance Downtowns complete a feasibility study, and not only they they formally include it in the downtown concept plan, but they made it the focal point of the entire downtown development plan. Also, check out the most popular amenities associated with the piazza that the crowd voted for here, including a bookstore+cafe+performance venue, brewpub/microbrewery, live music venue, public market, restaurant row, free wifi and skating rink.

Now the next question is, will it be pedestrian only, car free? Piazzas should be defined as car free, compared to a plaza in the U.S., which typically isn’t. There is only one other piazza (car free) in the U.S. It’ll be up to the crowd once again to prove that there’s a big enough market to make it financially feasible and a built reality.

Feel free to join the Bristol Rising community from anywhere in the world, follow on Facebook, and help bring attention to this effort!